South Jordan Restaurant to Get a Fresh Start [2 Images]
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Under new ownership, the South
Jordan restaurant Dickey’s Barbeque Pit, looks to the future.The new owner, Kody Cambell, hopes to win back old customers and make new customers. He said It hasn’t been
easy taking ownership at the restaurant after Jan Harding was injured there two
years ago.

Harding received second- and
third-degree burns in her throat after drinking tea there. She immediately
began choking and suffered severe burns to her esophagus and throat. The tea contained
a heavy-duty cleaner chemical that an employee put in the tea mix, thinking it
was sugar. She was hospitalized for two weeks and was in critical condition for
several days.

Although Harding didn’t sue
the company, In December 2014, Dickey's Barbecue Restaurants Inc. and its
franchisee Finger Lickin' Brands reached a settlement with her. Although the
settlement was confidential, they sent out a statement saying they had
“amicably resolved all claims between them.”

“Ms. Harding was pleased to
see that the company was able to demonstrate extensive changes which have been
put in place to ensure that a similar accident doesn’t happen again,” the press
release states.

May 2015, Finger Lickin'
Brands filed for bankruptcy and sold its company. John Thompson, owner of that company,
wouldn’t respond to messages left for him to comment about the situation.

In July 2016, the toxic tea
case had a new development.

Dickey’s franchise sought to
sue U.S. Foods and Ecolab, the Minnesota-based company that manufactures the toxic
chemical, for $5 million in damages for not having proper safety warnings on
their packaging. In the suit, Dickey’s stated they had lost profits after the
widespread coverage of the tea incident.

Ecolab didn’t have a comment
on the lawsuit, company spokesman Roman Blahoski said.

U.S. Foods is an
Illinois-based company that distributes the chemical. Company representatives
said little about the matter.

“It is
our policy not to comment on pending litigation,” said company employee Debra
Ceffalio.

Harding hasn’t been available
for comment on her reaction to the lawsuit and has not stated whether she is
upset that the franchise is passing the blame, when she didn’t do the same.

Campbell hopes this
development doesn’t further damage his business in South Jordan.

“The way the tea is prepared
is different now,” he said. “It used to be a bucket of sugar that was measured
from for making the tea. Now we have individually wrapped packages labeled
‘sugar.’ What happened before can’t happen again. There is not one employee
here now that was there at the time of the accident. We want people to know
that although the mistake was not our [as the new owner’s] fault, we feel
terrible about it. We feel the effects in our business, but we offer top-notch,
fresh, awesome barbecue food.”

Other positive changes at
this location set for the fall include lowering the prices of the food and adding
menu items such as street tacos.